Well we can discuss history of the Fed all we want but why not talk about the effectiveness of this secret organization?
One small observation that I will make. The Federal Reserve Chairman in MAY of 2008 told this country that we need not worry about the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He also said that we need not worry about a recession. Meanwhile the “anti fed” crowd – Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, Marc Faber had been telling us for years that we were in a massive bubble and more importantly why we were in the bubble. They also predicted what would happen! So people on this site think that the Federal Reserve is valuable and are “smart” when it could not even predict the bubble that it created? (Head spinning now……..) This is the greatest financial debacle of our generation (so far). I think the Fed has lost all credibility and must be audited.
There seems to be an underlying current that we “need” the Federal Reserve. If you look at the loss of buying power since 1913 – we need the Federal Reserve like a hole in the head. That is when the Fed was created and depending on who you listen too the dollar has lost 93% of its purchasing power. What does that mean? I think that it means that kids have to take out massive amounts of loans to get a decent education. It means that the single income household is a thing of the past. It means that healthcare costs have skyrocketed. It means that many of us who have been paying into the Social Security system are seriously questioning if we will ever get any $$ back out.